“Rap just makes me anxious and acid made me crazy, them squares just made looser and that wax just made me lazy and I still make this song, and I’mma make another…”
Chance the Rapper; hailing from Chi-town, has got the masses going crazy over his zany mixtape, Acid Rap, which was released April 30. Chance has surged with a social media buzz he’s capitalized on for maximum exposure.
“Rap just makes me anxious and acid made me crazy, them squares just made looser and that wax just made me lazy and I still make this song, and I’mma make another…”
Chance the Rapper; hailing from Chi-town, has got the masses going crazy over his zany mixtape, Acid Rap, which was released April 30. Chance has surged with a social media buzz he’s capitalized on for maximum exposure. In early July, Acid Rap hit number 63 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, despite being a free mixtape–Complex Magazine reported that the sales resulted from bootleg downloads on iTunes and Amazon, set up by a company Chance and his management had never heard of. When a mixtape available for free download can sell enough bootleg copies to make the charts, you can tell it has some momentum behind it.
Chance’s sound on Acid Rap is eccentric, encompassing quirky ad-libs that set him apart from other rappers. His style is soulful and brings a refreshing vibe to the hip hop realm. Bits and pieces of jazz, a touch of R&B, and waves of futuristic sounds add up to make Chance the Rapper a solid newcomer to the game.Despite the fact that his music is hard to sum up, his obvious talent brings people from all corners of hip hop together to appreciate his unusual flow. In addition to guest spots on Acid Rap from Ab-Soul and Childish Gambino, Chance recently made an appearance on Lil Wayne’s latest mixtape. Dedication 5, released last week, features Chance on the track “You Song.”
Chance’s first official video from Acid Rap, “Juice,” has received over 1.8 million views on Youtube since it was uploaded on January 30. The song deals with Chance’s life in the aftermath of a friend’s death. Rodney Kyles Jr., a 19 year-old Chicago rapper, was stabbed to death during a fight in Lincoln Park. “It was a really big thing because I was there and I saw it and I was really affected by it on a very personal level,” Chance told the Chicago Reader.
Chance The Rapper’s lyrics focus on his daily life throughout Acid Rap. While he doesn’t attempt to downplay the more violent aspects that arise from being an African-American teenager growing up in inner-city Chicago, he doesn’t focus on them or glorify them either. In “Pusha Man/Paranoia,” he talks about how it is to live in rough neighborhoods (“I know you’re scared–you should ask us if we scared too”) and worrying about pretty summer days bringing violence (“I hope that it storm in the morning, I hope that it’s pouring out. I hate crowded beaches, I hate the sound of fireworks… because everybody dies in the summer”). Elsewhere on Acid Rap, though, he talks about less serious subjects, such as childhood nostalgia (“Acid Rain”), being in love with women who have issues (“Lost”), and his mother not wanting to kiss him when he’s been smoking (“Cocoa Butter Kisses”). Chance is simultaneously raising awareness of the ways of the Chicago streets and providing a more down-to-earth insight about what it’s like to grow up in Chi-town.
In the wake of Acid Rap‘s success, Chance The Rapper’s career is continuing to move in a positive direction. According to Complex Magazine, in the recent weeks, Chance has performed with Eminem and Kendrick Lamar in Europe. This month he will be on the road with independent artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, of “Thrift Shop” fame, for their Fall World Tour. “I’m just havin’ fun with it,” Chance told Complex.
Download Acid Rap free from Chance The Rapper’s website, chanceraps.com.
